PREVIEW | Cyclocross Benidorm World Cup Men&Women - Favourites, Track, TV Guide & Poll

It is the 13th round of the 2022-2023 Cyclocross World Cup and it will take place in a new track as the riders head south into Spain where a lot of the peloton has been this month. It is in Benidorm that this race will take place, in an exciting new track.

Temperatures will be a little higher and the track will be dry. The race has a long flat paved start before hitting the first technical corners. Two relatively long stair sections and a decently sized pit will make for difficult sections.

The second part of the course sees the terrain change significantly, with another long road sector leading to a park where the riders will have a lot of gravel, not very technical but very fast.

Overall this is a track that resembles Fayetteville quite a lot. It's a very fast, almost featureless track where the riders only have to dismount for stairs. Long flat paved sections and continuously fast sections mean that tactics and slipstreaming will be very important. It should be a spectacular race in that it will deliver high-speed action and the riders should be very close to each other, with no big gaps present.

A very fast race, and quite different than the recent rough challenges in the Benelux. It should be a very even race in Benidorm, with Fem van Empel looking to secure her World Cup lead, and simultaneously being a good candidate for the win, alongside Puck Pieterse and Shirin van Anrooij. Explosive riders such as Silvia Persico and Marianne Vos could be interesting outsiders for this one.

Lucinda Brand, Blanka Kata Vas, Annemarie Worst, Zoe Bäckstedt and Inge van der Heijden will all be contenders for a place in the Top10, whilst more realistically for the Top10 you also have Aniek van Alphen, Line Burquier, Marie Schreiber, Hélène Clauzel, Mannon Bakker and Marion Norbert Riberolle.

The 'big three' are racing together for the last time this season. The location and likely start money made a difference in that World Champion Tom Pidcock is present, but with his mind in the road season it isn't expected that he'll be fighting for the win. Instead, Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel who gear up for Hoogerheide will be the two main favourites and in this track I'd say they're almost equally balanced, in my opinion favouring the Dutchman more.

Outside of them, it's a track that suits Eli Iserbyt, and it will be interesting to see if he can match. Laurens Sweeck and Michael Vanhtourenhout continue the rivalry and World Cup battle, with Sweeck ahead and I'd say better suited to this course. Lars van der Haar and Joris Nieuwenhuis will be contenders for the Top5. Home rider Felipe Orts, Gerben Kuipers, Jens Adams, Niels Vandeputte, Kevin Kuhn and Toon Vandebosch options for the Top10.

The women's race will start at 13:40 local time (13:40CET) and is estimated to finish at 14:30 local time (14:30CET). The men's race is set to start at 15:10 local time (15:10CET) and is estimated to finish at around 16:15 local time (16:15CET).

You can watch the broadcast of the race at the UCI website; GCN+/Eurosport Player internationally. The channels which will broadcast the race will be Flobikes (Canada/USA), Telenet and Proximus (Belgium), NOS (Netherlands), Ceská Televize (Czech Republic), TV2/Play Danmark (Denmark) and TV2 Norge (Norway).

PREDICTIONS:

Women's Elite
*** Shirin van Anrooij
** Puck Pieterse, Fem van Empel
* Silvia Persico, Lucinda Brand, Inge van der Heijden

Men's Elite
*** Wout van Aert
** Mathieu van der Poel, Eli Iserbyt
* Laurens Sweeck, Lars van der Haar, Tom Pidcock